Sunday, July 29, 2012

Has our cordial approach of
"soft" critiquing help lead to the degradation of music? The Bernie
Taupin lyric starts:

What have I got to do to make you love me?

What have I got to do to make you care?

Then a little later it reads…

What do I say when it's all over?

And sorry seems to be the hardest word?

While the overall narrative along
with the singer setting suggests that it is indeed a "love" song of
sorts, the words paint a vivid and accurate picture of the awkward place many
of us find ourselves when asked our opinion of a far less talented colleague's
music offering. Here's my most common scenario:

I play a piece that I've finished and
of which I am most proud for someone who has a love for music—like mine. The
song finishes and a grin reflects their awe and full appreciation of my
artistic accomplishment—like
mine, again. Then comes the dreaded response. "Hey. I have something of
mine I'd like to let you hear." I play it, hoping for the best. It's nowhere
close to the best. Now comes the dreaded question: "Well? What do you
think?" What do you say. Fortunately, they haven't asked for my 'honest
opinion'—"Oh…and give me your
honest opinion." I jinxed it. Again, what do you do? When was the last
time you told a friend, family member, or acquaintance that their music,
presented to you for your (maybe not) honest opinion, was honestly just
mediocre at best? Perhaps the music profession needs one of those common "…professional.
Please do not attempt" disclaimer captions. I even saw one used in a
Vitamin Water commercial, at the point where a dancer was doing "the
worm" Hip Hop dance move.

Saturday, July 14, 2012

"Ana Digs It", if memory serves, was the pun-ny name given to an analog-to-digital device released sometime in the late 80’s or early 90’s. Nowadays, it would seem that everyone digs Ana–if you know what I mean. On second thought, perhaps you don't.

What is it that captures the imagination so—when the topic of digital vs. analog comes up in techie to quasi techie conversations? Is it just imagined, the hind-sighted 20/20 aural visions of a better sound?

Some will tell you that analog is warmer, while–they say–digital is bright and harsh. I can tell you, I have heard too bright and very harsh analog. When Rufus Harris and I (google him) worked together at Motown songwriter Sylvia Moy's (google her. hint: "My Cherie Amor") Masterpiece Studios in Detroit, there was a certain engineer in training there who would record and mix at deafening levels. As the session wore on, the engineer's perception of highs waned and the situation was "remedied" by this person raising the highs to subsidize the dullness. Rufus told me how he walked in mid-morning to take over the room for his upcoming session. "Captain Ultrabrite" was just finishing, and asked Rufus his opinion of the mix. I don't remember him telling me how he answered, but I do remember him telling me how overbearingly bright and unpleasant it sounded.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

"Just
get the job done." The sentiment is one that one might express in
frustration toward a hire who's presented his still uncompleted work as “done”,
with nothing but rationalizations and excuses for the unsatisfactory job. The
former has been my shared opinion of the state of music today. I have picked on
Smooth Jazz and Hip Hop as the culprits. But maybe…just maybe the Digital Audio
Workstation is more culpable.

If
a child pulls a pot-handle suspended above the edge of a hot stove, or shows up
at school with his father’s pistol, we eventually place the blame on the
guardians. Such dangerous items should be kept out of the reach of children.
Humorist Dick Gregory once said that the way we judge crime is based on money:
If an old woman is killed and all the home invaders get from her is a dollar
and change, it will be said, "That's a shame; they killed that old woman
over a buck-fifty.” If the same woman is keeping her life savings in her
mattress, and the crooks haul in twenty-thousand dollars cash, people will say,
"It's all her fault; she didn't have no business keeping that much money
in her house anyway." So why don't
we blame the manufacturers? …for the same reason you don't sue Chevy for
damages from a drunk driver's accident: the consequences were unforeseeable.

When
David Smith and his cohorts developed the MIDI
protocol, they couldn't have imagined that would mark the beginning of the end
for commercial studios.